Documentary Editing

Appendix B

Case Studies of Schedules for Feature Documentaries

Lost in La Mancha (7 months)

On Lost in La Mancha, the verité-heavy documentary that I cut in 2001 about director Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to make his adaptation of Don Quixote, we had a relatively small amount of footage (well under 100 hours) to work with. Directors Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe focused my efforts by stringing out their favorite selects into a small seven-hour reel, and I began from there.

The easiest part of the editing was cutting the verité scenes that would eventually become the core of the film, and these ended up constituting about a third of the 89-minute ...